John Beaton

John Beaton (August 9, 1875 – June 1945) was a gold miner and businessman whose discovery of gold in Flat, Alaska, began the Iditarod Gold Rush.

Gold mining In 1908, Beaton began prospecting near Iditarod, Alaska, with his partner William A. Dikeman. Following an unavailing summer, they left the camp and drove a steam launch as far up the Iditarod River as they could manage. They beached the boat and built a cabin about south of Iditarod. On Christmas Day 1908, Beaton, Dikeman, and John's brother Murdock struck gold near the head of Otter Creek.

By the summer of 1909, news of the find had spread, and other prospectors began to claim the remaining ground around Otter Creek, and founded a nearby camp named Flat. By the spring of 1910, the boomtown had a population of over 2,000.